‼️ Zen and the Art of Motocycle Maintainance by Robert M. Pircig ‼️

 34/∞

“An inquiry into values/quality of life”

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/+ ⭐️⭐️

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This is a book I have read a long time ago. I wouldn’t have feel an importance to write a review on it unless a few things did not go down the way I wanted them to. It hurt and made me think, reminisce and meditate, whether I can do something differently next time. Social media are a tricky shit. We all share the highlights of our lives, but they might not seem all that glamorous (even to ourselves) as we try to present them on the outside. 

This time, I will be honest. It means not angry, not pissed off, not in mood of offending people, just honest. Btw. writing helps me let my steam off.

I know I have promised to review another book on the end of my last review, but to read Marx seems currently of very little importance. Besides, what Marx speaks about is not that interesting from today’s perspective (I have read the first chapter, it is tedious, no wonder commies loved it). Besides the only reason why I wanted to review Marx is because I like to provoke. 😇😆

Let’s go back to the time when I have read this book. I was in Toronto. I should have had everything in my life I needed. But I didn’t. I was not very happy inside, although on the outside it appeared the other way around. This book was a great help to me and I feel like it can help my readers too.

The main reason why I‘m writing this is, because this book inspired me in many ways and is defo worth reading.

The author speaks about life and compares it to travelling on a motorcycle.

One example I love in particular was about the way we take in our lives. Highways are usually the shortest and the most efficient ways of how to reach our goals. But when you take a highway, you might miss a lot from what a slower and less direct way has to offer. You might miss on the moments when you get lost, you have to pull away and ask somebody how to get where are you currently heading. If on a highway, you are going to miss on some beautiful sceneries as well. 😊

...

The allegory I saw there was my goal to become a lawyer. I didn’t like it. You do not get much contact with people as a lawyer, it is rather lonely profession. I like to do work I can show on the outside and sometimes even shock people!!! (I love to shock people btw.). Back then I felt like I’m drowning on the highway to hell. I felt an urgent need to change something.

After years I realised, that this feeling was not caused by the journey itself, but by many other things I wished worked in the way I imagined them to. I feel like now, but what you could do. Suck it up is the answer.

Slower roads are often more picaresque. They take longer, but it does not mean they are the wrong ones. They can often provide us with more insights and deeper understanding of who we are and where we were meant to head.

Another beautiful concept author introduced are:

A. The Romantics 

B. The Mechanics 

The romantics see motocycle as an item, which is going to take them to beautiful places. Like beauty points. They enjoy riding them, but they have no idea of how it works.

The mechanics on the other hand are interested in inner workings of a motorcycle. They can fix them, when something breaks down. They understand the machine.

I have a Vespa PX for about 6 years now. I started as a romantic. When I bought my Vespa I even didn’t know what is the difference between a two stroke engine and a four stroke engine. My Vespa has this funny engine kicker. I did not know how to use it, because my Vespa was also equipped with an electric starter (that is what you have in car, so you do not need to pull out a lever in -20 C and start your car manually like in 1900’). When something broke down, I had no idea how to fix it. It took me to many beautiful places in Wales and England. Like Stonehenge, Pen y Fan, Treorchy, later on to some of the most beautiful sceneries in Swiss and German Alps which could be hardly beaten by anything else.

Year after year, I got into the art of motorcycle maintenance. I assembled and disassembled my motorcycle many times in order to learn how it works. Nowadays, I’m pretty confident to take my Vespa apart and fix or improve whatever is wrong with it.

Sadly, the same does not apply to the cars. I bought my first car in September last year. I managed to do many retrofits, such as an automatic transmission, leather seats, a radio with car play, rear backing camera and handsfree. There are some retrofits which are easy fit and could be done by a retard like me. Sadly, there are some retrofits such as the power steering and the rain sensor which are nearly impossible to retrofit by anybody... I blown up a loads of money on them fucking retrofits and they did not work on the end of the day. (Fuck, I’m still pissed off about these). 😃

My last fuck up was the rain sensor. I wired it incorrectly to the central computer and fucked my car up, literally. My car went crazy. Spontaneously honking, turning lights, wipers on etc. You can imagine the scene.

I realised that certain cars are made in the way that they cannot be retrofitted with an additional high spec equipment (not eco friendly btw.). Even when you are lucky to wire everything correctly, you still need to hook up the car to a diagnostics and “learn” the central computer a new function. This can get very costly and sometimes nearly impossible.

Somehow, after having this experience I saw an allegory to my life. We try, we fail and sometimes it is impossible to do what we intended to. Repair is possible, but it cost so much it is not possible to repair it. (The best solution is to push your car off the cliff and make insurance company to pay for it). 😃

Anyway, I was trying to turn my car into something it wasn’t. It hurt a lot financially and it was completely pointless. So don’t do this to your car, push it off the cliff and buy a new one.

Nevertheless, the most important point in the book is the attempt to define values/quality. This part of the book gives me shivers. 

Under quality, you could imagine one’s life. Prisig wanted to define what quality is. Only to come to the conclusion that quality (the reason why are we happy and sad) differs for all living beings.

In the other words, what makes me happy might not make happy other people.

Prisig came to the conclusion that it is practically impossible to define it. Although, he did it (more or the less).

In the book Prisig broke down. He lost what he worked for for years. Alas his life was not on the end. He was meant to break down the chains which were holding him aback.

But there are some losses that cannot be compensated. On the end of the book Pirsig loses his son, who was shot death after some unimportant argument on the street.

I would like to finish in a positive way. Life is not fair. Things fall into a disrepair and in my case I often feel like I need to fix them no matter the cost. But what is probably more important is to let them be in a disrepair and move on. Build new things and not to be scared to do that.

I would like to add you have to fail terribly in order to get what you want. Although, it might not be true for all scenarios. The most important thing is to not give up.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ + ⭐️⭐️

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Feel free to like, share and comment or recommend books/courses you find inspirational yourself. I’m keen to hear about them.

Coming Up Next: 

Masterclass: Matthew Walker Teaches science of Sleep

Peace 🧘‍♂️✌️🌱